1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording method and apparatus, a function recording method and apparatus, and an information reproducing method and apparatus, for identifying and specifying an information reproducing apparatus among a plurality of information reproducing apparatuses, such as optical disk players, which is allowed to reproduce record information such as audio and video information, digital information for a computer etc., recorded on a record medium such as a CD (Compact Disk), an LVD (Laser Vision Disk), a CD-ROM (Compact Disk--Read Only Memory) and so on.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a scrambling method for identifying and specifying the information reproducing apparatus which is allowed or prohibited to reproduce the record information.
This scrambling method is such a recording method that the inversion and non-inversion of the bit arrangements constituting the record signal are randomly performed (i.e. scrambled) when the digitized record signal is recorded to the optical disk and the like. The scrambling of the bit arrangements is performed according to a certain random rule.
Then, when reproducing the scrambled record signal, the scrambling of the record signal is released by reproducing the scrambled record signal through a scrambling releasing circuit, so that the record signal can be reproduced normally. In this case, if the scrambled record signal is reproduced by a reproducing apparatus which is not provided with the scramble releasing circuit, the video image can be hardly seen if the record signal is the video signal, or only the noise can be sound-outputted if the record signal is the audio signal.
According to the above mentioned scrambling method, since the reproduction of the record signal can be performed only by the reproducing apparatus having the scramble releasing circuit, it is possible to identify and specify the reproducing apparatus allowed or prohibited to reproduce the record signal.
However, according to the above mentioned scrambling method, as long as the scramble releasing circuit exists, the normal reproduction can be performed by any reproducing apparatus. Namely, if the scramble releasing apparatus having the scramble releasing circuit is connected to the ordinary reproducing apparatus (which does not have the scramble releasing circuit), it is possible for any type of reproducing apparatus to reproduce the record signal. Thus, it is not possible to efficiently and reliably identify and specify the reproducing apparatus allowed or prohibited to reproduce the record signal.